Posts Tagged ‘money’

Football: Jets-v-Eagles, Sep 2009 – 50


Image by Ed Yourdon
Note: this photo was published in an Apr 19, 2010 Eagle Buzz blog, with the same title as the caption that I used for this Flickr page.

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I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that, until last night, I had never been to a professional football game in my life. Baseball, basketball, and tennis: yes, of course. High-school and college football games: sure, though that was a long time ago. Indeed, the last college football game I watched (in person) was in the mid-60s, when I was invited to the annual Harvard-Yale game by a Radcliffe student I had begun dating — a development to which my MIT college roommate reacted, in shock, by howling, "Radcliffe? You’re dating a Cliffie? She must be a pig!" After which he pulled out his flute, every time he thought she might be present when he returned to our off-campus apartment, and played "Old McDonald Had a Farm" until he collapsed in gales of laughter on the stairwell. Highly inaccurate, I hasten to note, and totally unfair. But I digress…

Anyway, a freelance writer, Mitch Ligon (whose photo you can see here in one of my Flickr sets), invited me to accompany him last night to the New York Jets – Philadelphia Eagles game out in the New Jersey Meadowlands — another first-time experience. I was given a photographer’s press pass, which gave me access to the locker rooms, press box, various other "inner sanctum" locations … and, most important, the football field itself. I was given a red jersey to wear, told to stay outside the yellow dashed lines that ring the field, and turned loose for the evening. I felt somewhat inadequate, because I knew that the "real" professional photographers would be equipped with high-cameras and monstrous telephoto lenses beyond anything I had ever touched, or could possibly afford; and even though my Nikon D300 and 70-300mm zoom lens is fairly respectable in amateur circles, I had no idea if I would be able to take any decent photos at all…

The other problem is that I know little or nothing about the nuances of football, beyond the obvious fact that the quarterback either passes the ball, or hands off to someone who attempts to run the ball downfield. Punts and field-goal kicks are also a familiar concept, but if you don’t have a good anticipatory sense of who is about to do what to whom, it’s easy to miss the "moment" when the perfect shot might be available. Also, I didn’t really know anything about the players, aside from the respective star quarterbacks: Philadelphia’s controversial Michael Vick, and New York’s newly-named starting quarterback, Mark Sanchez. I had looked at the team rosters on the Internet before the game, so at least I knew their jersey numbers (#6 for Sanchez, and #7 for Vick, as you’ll see in the photos) — but the "action" was often so far away (at the other end of the field) that I couldn’t tell whether the starting quarterback, or one of the substitutes, was making the plays.

Nevertheless, by the beginning of the second quarter I was feeling a little more comfortable — if only because I found it easy to follow along behind the other professional photographers as they marched (or ran) from one end of the field to the other, in order to get their equipment set up for what they expected would be the next great shot. By the end of the game, I had taken 1,100+ photos, including several of Michael Vick in a post-game locker-room interview; and from the sound of the clickety-click-clack of my fellow photographers, I could tell that many of them had taken several thousand. I’ll spare you the technical details of my feeble attempts to get some decent shots; I had picked up some good tips from the sports-photography chapter of Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography, and I did my best within the limitations of my equipment and my lack of familiarity with the situation.

What impressed me most about the whole experience was the scale of modern professional football — the scale of everything. It’s one thing to read that there are 80,000 people in a football stadium; it’s another thing to actually be there and hear the simultaneous roar of those 80,000 people as a quarterback is sacked or a long pass is completed. It’s one thing to read that a professional football player is 6 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs 350 pounds; it’s another thing to stand next to several dozen such giants. Heck, I thought there were only 20 or 30 such giants on each team; I had no idea that there were 64 of them (a number which will be pared down as the pre-season comes to an end), or that there might be 20-30 different coaches. And then there are the hundreds of "staff members" scurrying around all over the place, carrying out their various duties and assignments; and there are the security guards and State Police, who spent most of the time scanning the stadium crowd rather than watching the players, presumably watching for scuffles or fights or … well, who knows what. There are cheerleaders too, in this case bearing the official name of New York Jets Flight Crew; I had expected half a dozen, but there were two dozen perky, long-haired beauties, with permanently frozen smiles, who who danced and pranced before the crowd at every conceivable opportunity.

All of this has resulted in the photos you’ll see in this album. I had to delete roughly a hundred of my original images, because they were out of focus, or because a referee decided to walk in front of my camera at the wrong moment; and another 900 were "okay," but not terribly exciting. I’m sure that none of them are as crisp, sharp, and well-composed as those taken by the Sports Illustrated photographer and the other professionals on the field; but I did end up with 72 "keepers" that I hope you’ll enjoy…

… and, yes, I probably will attend another football game or two in the years ahead. Whether I’m lucky enough to get down on the field again is anyone’s guess….

Shared By Dan Lipsky

Football Buster-The Revolutionary Fund-Raiser by: Nathan Griffin

In today’s world it’s usually incredibly stressful to arrange a fund-raiser for a worthy cause, in particular when its football related, but few people realise that there are truly really easy methods to raising money without spending too much time collating goals and teams! Football Buster is undoubtedly an innovative new football gaming system that allows you to raise money on your chosen cause with extraordinary ease.

Any Football Clubs or Organization can actually setup their own online Football game online, which only takes close to 10 mins to create. The game itself is often generally labelled as a “Football Lottery”, where one can select all of your lucky numbers for the upcoming game! The football games themselves are in line with actual live Football results, so you can watch along with your fingers crossed, with the hope that you’ve got the right sums, which often can actually increase the excitement of the game itself, if it’s not quite enjoyable enough just watching it! But you might be wondering how it works, well it’s actually very simple. After you have constructed your online football game using Football Buster, you can easily register and begin fundraising straight away! Your players may take part in the games and decide on their 2 lucky numbers to play; the number they decide upon represent two real-life and professional football clubs. The goals that those two clubs score will then be added together to give all your players a score. Then, it’s whoever gets to 21 first!

After a player reaches 21, they could win prizes and cash payouts for winning the football lottery game. One benefit to raising money in this way, is you aren’t required to be worried about doing all the sums yourself. Football Buster offers an automated gaming system that does it all for you, relieving practically all the admin you would normally have to do. The system itself keeps track of and keeps note of the goals scored by each team for you, it also allows brand new players to join in should they like, meaning that nobody has got to wait for a round to end before joining in!

Causes already involved in the Football Buster Games include Simon Yeo with Help for Heroes. Simon became a hero in the field, serving in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Germany, and has consistently had the nose for a goal! He’s one of Help for Heroe’s most valued fundraisers, his money-raising efforts have involved having his body waxed on YouTube, and even letting a die-hard Lincoln fan take his most prized shirt off his back. He’s also among the list of acting figureheads for the Help for Heroes Bike Ride next April, which journeys all over the coast of the UK. He was initially attracted to Football Buster for the reason that he felt it gave competitors the chance to give money to a worthy cause, together with having a good time at the same time.

Football Buster even offers the support of Grass Roots Football and many other football teams, all raising money for their independent funds and causes. Football Buster will be invested in assisting raise funds for all good causes, and the online system itself may help you raise money from worldwide, as well as this, the Football Buster team can help with any promotion of soccer teams football game you want to set up, all for free, in an effort to raise awareness of the game, and get more many people involved in the game, all raising money too! You place a game prize, and you’re away, the rest is all done for you, it’s quick, not difficult and a lot of fun, and it can help you raise extra income than you’d ever thought for that cause that you’re supporting. With so many benefits, you’d be mad to not give it a try, giving and raising finances are a wonderful thing, and with Football Buster – football games, it is rather simple and lots of fun too!

Dan Lipsky

www.gossipberry.com They’re like the Power Rangers, except they can’t beat anyone up.

Related Football Articles

How To Bet On Baseball

It’s that time of year again, when the baseball season gets underway. Although it is not as popular with sports bettors as say football or basketball, the true pros know that it can be one of the most profitable sports to wager on available. If you have a keen eye and can pay attention to details, the betting on baseball may just be a profitable experience for you this season.

So Why Can Betting on Baseball be Profitable for You?

Well there are literally a ton of reasons, but today I’m going to cover a few of them:

Wide Selection of Games – On any given day there are 20 or more games to choose from on the card. This allows you to be very selective on which games you focus on and which teams you bet for. If you do your research, you should be able to spot a couple of gems each and every day.

Statistics – By far baseball offers the most amount of statistics. They have statistics on everything, from home wins, road losses and night and day play. There is so much data available that spotting some profitable trends from past seasons could really help out with your winning results. How To Bet On Baseball

Pitching - Unlike other sports, the starting pitcher can really give you an unfair advantage on who is more likely to win the game. Just knowing which teams match up well against certain starters can help you pick out a nice paying underdog.

Losing More Than Half Your Games – This is probably one of the most appealing aspects of betting on baseball. You can actually lose more than 50% of your wagers and still show a nice profit. If you have done any betting on other sports that use a point spread (-110), then you probably know that your breakeven point is 52.7%. If you can achieve a higher winning percentage than this, then you will show a profit at the end of the season.

When betting on baseball it’s a bit different since they don’t use a spread. Instead they use the money line and you can find some really nice paying underdogs that will show some nice returns. If you were to only bet on baseball dogs at +189 this season, your breakeven would only need to be 35%. You could lose almost 65% of your bets and still make money. Now that’s definitely something to keep in mind this baseball season. How To Bet On Baseball

by Ed Yourdon

Football: Jets-v-Eagles, Sep 2009 – 10


Image by Ed Yourdon
Note: this photo was incorporated into a user-controlled mechanism showing how users could add any photo to the "background" of their Twitter home page.

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I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that, until last night, I had never been to a professional football game in my life. Baseball, basketball, and tennis: yes, of course. High-school and college football games: sure, though that was a long time ago. Indeed, the last college football game I watched (in person) was in the mid-60s, when I was invited to the annual Harvard-Yale game by a Radcliffe student I had begun dating — a development to which my MIT college roommate reacted, in shock, by howling, "Radcliffe? You’re dating a Cliffie? She must be a pig!" After which he pulled out his flute, every time he thought she might be present when he returned to our off-campus apartment, and played "Old McDonald Had a Farm" until he collapsed in gales of laughter on the stairwell. Highly inaccurate, I hasten to note, and totally unfair. But I digress…

Anyway, a freelance writer, Mitch Ligon (whose photo you can see here in one of my Flickr sets), invited me to accompany him last night to the New York Jets – Philadelphia Eagles game out in the New Jersey Meadowlands — another first-time experience. I was given a photographer’s press pass, which gave me access to the locker rooms, press box, various other "inner sanctum" locations … and, most important, the football field itself. I was given a red jersey to wear, told to stay outside the yellow dashed lines that ring the field, and turned loose for the evening. I felt somewhat inadequate, because I knew that the "real" professional photographers would be equipped with high-cameras and monstrous telephoto lenses beyond anything I had ever touched, or could possibly afford; and even though my Nikon D300 and 70-300mm zoom lens is fairly respectable in amateur circles, I had no idea if I would be able to take any decent photos at all…

The other problem is that I know little or nothing about the nuances of football, beyond the obvious fact that the quarterback either passes the ball, or hands off to someone who attempts to run the ball downfield. Punts and field-goal kicks are also a familiar concept, but if you don’t have a good anticipatory sense of who is about to do what to whom, it’s easy to miss the "moment" when the perfect shot might be available. Also, I didn’t really know anything about the players, aside from the respective star quarterbacks: Philadelphia’s controversial Michael Vick, and New York’s newly-named starting quarterback, Mark Sanchez. I had looked at the team rosters on the Internet before the game, so at least I knew their jersey numbers (#6 for Sanchez, and #7 for Vick, as you’ll see in the photos) — but the "action" was often so far away (at the other end of the field) that I couldn’t tell whether the starting quarterback, or one of the substitutes, was making the plays.

Nevertheless, by the beginning of the second quarter I was feeling a little more comfortable — if only because I found it easy to follow along behind the other professional photographers as they marched (or ran) from one end of the field to the other, in order to get their equipment set up for what they expected would be the next great shot. By the end of the game, I had taken 1,100+ photos, including several of Michael Vick in a post-game locker-room interview; and from the sound of the clickety-click-clack of my fellow photographers, I could tell that many of them had taken several thousand. I’ll spare you the technical details of my feeble attempts to get some decent shots; I had picked up some good tips from the sports-photography chapter of Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography, and I did my best within the limitations of my equipment and my lack of familiarity with the situation.

What impressed me most about the whole experience was the scale of modern professional football — the scale of everything. It’s one thing to read that there are 80,000 people in a football stadium; it’s another thing to actually be there and hear the simultaneous roar of those 80,000 people as a quarterback is sacked or a long pass is completed. It’s one thing to read that a professional football player is 6 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs 350 pounds; it’s another thing to stand next to several dozen such giants. Heck, I thought there were only 20 or 30 such giants on each team; I had no idea that there were 64 of them (a number which will be pared down as the pre-season comes to an end), or that there might be 20-30 different coaches. And then there are the hundreds of "staff members" scurrying around all over the place, carrying out their various duties and assignments; and there are the security guards and State Police, who spent most of the time scanning the stadium crowd rather than watching the players, presumably watching for scuffles or fights or … well, who knows what. There are cheerleaders too, in this case bearing the official name of New York Jets Flight Crew; I had expected half a dozen, but there were two dozen perky, long-haired beauties, with permanently frozen smiles, who who danced and pranced before the crowd at every conceivable opportunity.

All of this has resulted in the photos you’ll see in this album. I had to delete roughly a hundred of my original images, because they were out of focus, or because a referee decided to walk in front of my camera at the wrong moment; and another 900 were "okay," but not terribly exciting. I’m sure that none of them are as crisp, sharp, and well-composed as those taken by the Sports Illustrated photographer and the other professionals on the field; but I did end up with 72 "keepers" that I hope you’ll enjoy…

… and, yes, I probably will attend another football game or two in the years ahead. Whether I’m lucky enough to get down on the field again is anyone’s guess….

Football betting is a type of gambling which has gained huge popularity worldwide from long days. Like every popular sports, football comes in its new avatar with its own gambling opportunities. The game has got huge fans throwing money for it and showing their support. People are getting engaged in this money making source, scouring through several football betting tips.

Where From You Can Avail Football Betting Tips?

If you are and avid football fan and intending to get a boot on the market of online football betting as a beginner, you need to have a glance at some of the betting tips to reap profits. The tips are easily available and can add an edge to the gaming experience. Let’s take you through some of the handpicked football betting tips to help you bet on football prudently.

Make Your Own Betting Tips:

First of all, you need to grow interest in the game and understand the system of betting, as that will help you take over the system. Making your own football betting tips can be a satisfactory one. If you are a regular viewer of the football league, you can have a fair idea about the team’s performance, player’s background, strengths & weakness and talent. A thorough observation of the game can help you know which players are promising enough on field performance. Based on that knowledge gathering, a bettor can bet on football league betting, expecting good returns. You can also take the help of statistical data, write-ups etc of the team involved and related football results to reap good profits.

Sway In Internet Sojourn:

You can flip through various football betting sites taking the help of internet. Internet is considered as the house of information and football betting tips are just some of the many things you can look out for. The sites dedicated to football can help you find the statistics, performance report of the overall team and players. If this is not enough of a pleasant surprise, you can read ‘blog’ or ‘weblogs’ of experts and professionals who have vast knowledge in football and various tips. Also don’t forget to visit forums where you can get into interaction process, exchange information on football betting tips with other fans. This can at least give you a close idea of the victorious team.

Subscribe Expert Tips Service:

The third way to get football picks is to subscribe a proficient tips service. Seek for such professional tip service that gives essential prediction service at a nominal rate. The predictions service will make a profit over the season. Straight betting is another notable thing in football betting tips. You must engage in such betting only when you have full confidence and knowledge on your betting skills.

To conclude, it is advised that you act to your own after understanding about how to put bids. So before online football betting, it is advised to again polish your knowledge about the ‘would be football betting team’. The most important thing is the research of the most up-to-date information in orders from the betting tips to fall in tune with the current trend. Remember the more you accomplish knowledge about each single aspect, the better is the chance of winning.

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Football costs millions for bowl-bound schools, who defend sport as money maker
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Football: Lavicka gets no backing
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Football preview: Marcus McGraw, NP’s music man
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by Bill Gracey

Here is the easiest way to make money betting on horse races.  First, start with a really good horse.  This is relative.  For instance, in a ,000 claiming race, a horse that could race competitively in a ,000 claimer would be considered a really good horse.  So what you are looking for is a situation with a horse that far out classes the competition.  I’ll explain two ways to find this situation.

First, the easiest and surest way to get this situation is to create it yourself.  You need to buy a horse.  It doesn’t have to be a great horse.  It does have to be sound enough to run some races.  Let’s say you buy a horse that just raced competitively in a ,000 race.  The owner is considering dropping the horse into an ,000 race.  He or she thinks that he may be able to win the race and get the purse, as well as cashing a ticket on his horse.  On the other hand, that is risky.  If you offer him ,000 for the horse, he will probably sell it to you.

I know what you’re thinking, why buy a horse that just lost a ,000 horse race for ,000?  Why not just wait until it races for ,000 and claim it?  Because you don’t want it to race for ,000 just yet and when it does race for ,000, you want it to lose badly.  Now, after you’ve bought said horse, the next step is to enter it in another ,000 race and lose badly.

Now enter it in an ,000 claimer and lose badly.  Of course, when I say lose badly I mean the jockey has to hold it back and make it lose by a huge margin.  This will scare any would-be claimers away from your horse.  Now it looks terrible and they start to suspect that it has a big time physical problem.  Front wraps on the horse are often a nice touch at this point to drive that home.  The next step is to lose again at the ,000 level.

Now enter your horse in a ,000 claimer.  Lose badly.  By this time you’ve spent a fortune on trainer fees and paying a jockey to hold the horse back.  Now enter the horse in another ,000 claimer.  At this point it will probably also get a weight allowance from the racing secretary because it looks like the horse is over matched even in the ,000 claimer.

Now give the rider the green light and go for the win.  Do not bet early on your horse to tip the crowd.  Steadily pour the money in and get as much as you can into the exotics as well so the money won’t be too obvious.  You will make a huge score.  Your trainer will get called into the racing secretary’s office to explain the dramatic turn around in form.  Racing secretaries have to do this.  Have the trainer tell the official that the horse had a problem like a blockage that affected its breathing and that once the problem was solved, the horse could run a big race.

Believe it or not, this very scenario happens all the time at the races and you, the bettor, are the one who is being scammed.  So what is plan B?  If you can’t afford to buy a horse and run this little scam yourself, the next best thing is to spot the wise guys who are.  Look for a horse that just keeps dropping and losing by big margins after doing fairly well in one race.  If you can spot one good race four or five back and then the horse starts dropping down the claiming ladder, something is up.

If the horse really had a problem that was that bad, why would they keep running it knowing they were going to lose?  The answer is that they wouldn’t.  The only reason that horse is running is to convince the betting public that it is a bad bet and can’t win.  It’s a set up.

Like I said.  Look for a horse that is dropping like this and also see if there was a change of ownership, either by sale or claim, around the time it had its one good race.  That is the tip off.
That is how you make money betting on horse races.

Related Horse Racing Articles

Everyone knows that gambling is a business of risk. Professional gamblers will successfully manage their risks and make a profit, whilst 98% of punters who consistently lose money, also consistently fail to manage risk effectively.

This is the concluding part to this series of articles, where I have explored the key reasons most punters lose money, in a vain attempt to make money through betting.

We have seen the importance of always getting a value price when you bet. If you fail to strike bets which offer a satisfactory return on your investment, then ultimately you will lose money.

We have learned why you should have a sensible approach to staking. Never put too much of your betting bank at risk in one bet, in an attempt to get rich quick.

I pressed home the dangers of chasing your losses. Experienced gamblers appreciate that you will more often than not lose more bets than you win. Losing is part of gambling – accept this fact and you will not be tempted to compound your losses by trying to re-coup them by deviating from your staking plan.

In the most recent article, we looked at discipline, and why it is critical to treat your betting like a proper business if you want to achieve business-like results.

In this final section, I want to conclude by further exploring the topic of risk management, and developing a profitable portfolio of betting strategies.

Ask any number of professional gamblers and the vast majority will tell you they do not rely solely on one betting strategy alone. They spread their risk by employing several methods, and constantly reviewing the performance of each method. In effect, this is much like an investor managing a portfolio of stocks, shares, and investments. This echoes back to a previous article where I likened betting for profit to running a business.

The disadvantage of relying on just one betting method or system or tipster, is that if the strategy is not currently returning a profit, then you have no income. It’s the classic “eggs in a basket” scenario!

If you look at the Stock Market, the value of individual shares goes up and down on a daily basis. Whereas, over time, the value of the market as a whole has historically risen.

So it makes sense to have a number of betting strategies running concurrently. If during one particular month Tipster A is losing money, then probably System B is returning a profit. Your aim should be to manage your portfolio such that you generate a net income every month.

Developing a portfolio raises a number of questions:

1) Which strategies should I employ?

2) How many betting systems/tipsters should I have in my portfolio?

3) When should I relegate a system from my portfolio?

Developing your betting portfolio

To answer the first question – the obvious response is to follow profitable systems. But this is much easier said than done. Where do you find profitable methods, systems, and tipsters?

It will take you time to develop a good portfolio, but a good place to start is with your own methods. If you can read form, and you understand the concept of value, then you can develop your own methods of making good selections.

Whilst you are developing your own methods, you can employ the skills of one or more tipsters, and/or buy some ready-made systems. Before rushing out to buy a copy of the Racing Post and looking in the classified advertisements for tipsters, I recommend you search on Google under ‘tipster review’ or ‘horse racing tipster review’ or ‘betting tipster review’. Adverts will always say their tipster or system is the best, and makes amazing profits. But this is your money you are investing, and you owe it to yourself to do some home-work.

Look for a forum or discussion board where tipsters and systems are reviewed objectively by customers or people who have actually used the service.

How big should your portfolio be?

This is a question only you can answer really. The more strategies you have, the more your risk is spread across a number of income streams. You could also potentially earn more money. However, the more methods you employ the harder your portfolio will be to manage, and the more of your time will be taken up.

You will need to strike a balance where you are comfortable with the time-input and the return from the portfolio.

A sensible portfolio may have five or six strategies, with another two under review at any one time.

Managing your portfolio

In a previous chapter I suggested ‘paper-trading’ a method for at least two months to test its profitability. This means you should follow a method or tipster or system for two months to see if theoretically you would have made a profit. Once you are happy with the performance of a particular method, you can proceed to award it a place in your portfolio, and start trading with actual cash.

If the strategy doesn’t make the grade, then ‘file’ it for future reference.

You will have heard the old saying “If it ain’t broke don’t try to fix it” so you should not be too hasty to discard a particular betting method if it returns a losing month.

However, there is also the teaching “Don’t throw good money after bad”. If a system has earned a place in your portfolio by performing well for two months, then it makes sense to allow it two poor months before even considering it should be relegated. That said, if you are not happy with a system and it is losing money, then get rid of it!

Summary

Develop a portfolio of betting strategies to spread your risk and maintain a regular net income. Use a combination of your own personal methods, purchased systems, and subscription tipsters. Constantly review your profitability to highlight any under-performing strategies.

Baseball card collecting has been a part of American culture since the 1800s and it not only is a great hobby but many people turn a good profit also. With so many various cards out there and so many great players there is still plenty of money to be made collecting baseball cards.

The secret to making it a profitable hobby is research and attending baseball card shows, as they are where you are going to find the best deals and meet the most knowledgeable experts. There are a lot of factors that go into determining the value of a baseball card, including the players stats, the rarity of the card and any notable career events with regards to the player featured on the card.

If you are parent, baseball card collecting is a great way to introduce your kids to the world of investing, because a young boy or girl will view a baseball card collection the same way as an adult sees an investment portfolio. Any young boy or girl will just love attending baseball card shows and seeing all of the cards being displayed.

Baseball card shows are also a great way to spend time with your kids and you will be surprised at the variety of memorabilia that you will find on display. You never know what kind of deal you are going to find at a card show, so you have to look carefully and know your facts well.

It actually costs very little to get started collecting baseball cards and it is advisable that you start with less expensive cards and then work your way up. It is important that you always store your cards in protective plastic that is marketed just for the purpose of storing sports cards and you can expect to hold onto some of your cards for years.

Author: Max Redd http://www.reddracing.co.uk

This is the third instalment in a series of articles on profitable betting through sensible money management. So far, I have discussed the importance of getting value when you bet, to maximise the returns you achieve when your selections win. In the most recent article you should have learned to keep your stakes in proportion to the size of your betting bank.

Today I want to examine a common mistake that often gets punters into serious trouble – chasing your losses.

I don’t think there can be many of us who have not at some time, decided to get back what we just lost by betting a little bigger on the next race. It is sometimes known as progressive staking.

Let’s take a simple scenario: you bet £10 on Red Rum, and he loses. What do you do? Perhaps you continue with your selection methods and come up with another pick in the next race – Best Mate. The price is 6/4F

But, rather than putting another £10 bet on Best Mate, you decide to ‘chase’ your loss from the last race. You add another £7 to your stake so that when Best Mate wins you will pick up an extra £10.50 to recover the bet you lost on Red Rum. Good plan? Could be, after all Best Mate is a sure fire winner, right? May be. May be not!

What happens if Best Mate loses? You are now £27 ‘in the hole’. But you still have a plan. Your next selection is a dead cert winner at Even money. You place your usual £10 stake plus an extra £27 to cover your losses so far. No need to worry. When this one comes in, you will have re-couped your losses and have a £10 profit to show as well.

Let’s take a step back here. You are staking £37 to win a £10 profit. Think about it – you are effectively getting odds of only around 1 to 4 odds-on about a horse that is Even money in the market. That is terrible value!

You may escape this time and your horse may well win. But what if, heaven forbid, your red-hot even money favourite fails to win? After just three bets, you are down to the tune of £64 when your normal stake is just a tenner!

Long losing runs do occur, more frequently than you might think, and even with short-priced selections.

If you spent a day in a casino at the roulette tables, and analysed how many times you witnessed a run of 7 or 8 consecutive ‘red’ numbers, I would not be at all surprised if you saw this happen four or five times – in a single day. Here we have pretty much a 50/50 bet, even money, that the roulette ball will land in either a red or a black slot. Yet I was amazed to learn that the longest run of the same colour (reported) was THIRTY-NINE consecutive reds!!

Imagine if you were betting on black, and saying to yourself each time “no worries, it’s got to be black next time…. Surely?”

But let’s go back to the more common occurrence of a losing run of 7 even money bets. We will be betting on the red.

We place a £1 bet on the first spin. It’s black. We chase our loss by ‘doubling up’ and next bet £2. If we were to carry on in this manner, after 6 spins we would be betting £64 to win our original £1

I sincerely hope my point is getting across. By chasing your losses you can very quickly see your stakes climbing to preposterous levels, to win your original, relatively small stake. The risk is way out of proportion compared to the potential reward.

One last example to really ram the point home. The Racing Post runs a tipster competition. All the leading racing journalists are involved, representing the nation’s newspapers and horse racing publications. These are experts at tipping horses. Take a look at the results table any day, and see for yourself the longest losing run. Remember, these are the experts.

I looked today, and Racing Post PostData has suffered this season a losing run of twenty-seven. Twenty-seven consecutive losers from an expert tipster! And believe me, he is not on his own, just the worst offender this season so far.

There is an old saying – “Don’t throw good money after bad”. If your selections don’t make a profit from simple level stakes betting, don’t try and make them profitable by throwing more money at them. You may survive with a profit for a while, but this approach is a disaster waiting to happen. Sooner or later you WILL blow your entire bank chasing a disproportionately small profit.

If your selections don’t make a profit from simple level stakes betting, change your system.

If you are a soccer player you are probably busy all year round. If you are not competing in tournaments, you are practising or simply playing for fun. However, all this activity will really take its toll on your sportswear and soccer equipment, meaning that you have to purchase new soccer jerseys all the time. Even the biggest and best brands will wear out sooner or later, and all your gear will need to be replaced at some point.

When replacing them just for yourself, or for a whole soccer team, it is important that you know where to go to get the best quality jerseys at reasonable prices. On top of this you will also need the service to be dependable, shipping them in a timely manner so that they arrive quickly.

Soccer jerseys are available from many different outlets, including a number of sportswear catalogues as well as stores. However, by far the most economical and the easiest way to buy your new ones online. The internet provides a wide range of services both for those who play soccer as well as for those who are simply fans who want to show off their team colors.

What available on the internet are often great quality but lower in price than many of the ones that offered in store. This means that you can save a lot of money if you need to buy in bulk, or if you are buying official team kits. They will even deliver right to your door making it a convenient option, or you can get them delivered straight to the club and distribute them there. This means that you will only have to pay for one batch of shipping and you will not even have to leave the comfort of your home.

If you are a fan you will be able to find kits for your favorite club teams, national teams, your favorite colors or even vintage styles. Whatever you are after, it is a lot easier to search online. This also means that whether you are a fan or a player you can get your team measured and order shirts that will fit perfectly.

As well as buying online, there are many other useful items that you might want to order, including football boots, training equipment, soccer balls and so on. You will also be able to buy official team merchandise online as well. Altogether, shopping online is a great way to get everything you need in one place, rather than searching round stores when you could be spending your time doing something more useful and enjoyable.

Online shopping is becoming an increasingly popular option for many these days, and buying soccer jerseys is no different. You will often see a much larger selection of brands, sizes, and colors online, as well as the facility to even personalize what you buy. This is an extremely convenient way of shopping, especially when you need to replace your soccer jerseys often. Just do a quick internet search to find the large number of soccer stores available, and choose the best deals to benefit from the huge savings available.

Times have changed and so has horse racing handicapping. In order to find winners, years ago, we had to figure out everything using long math and long hours reading past performances. For instance, when trying to figure out the pace scenario of a race, we’d have to calculate the fractions the horse actually ran by making adjustments using its beaten lengths at each call.

Now we have software and computers to make those figures readily available, including speed figures that use sophisticated algorithms and track variants. Do you remember when Andy Beyer’s Speed Figures first came on the scene? That seemed to change handicapping, but since everybody started using them, how much did any of us really benefit from that new idea? Now they are in most programs in some form or another and anyone who buys a program sees them.

For that matter, how much has your win ratio or profit line changed based on all the new information that is available? If you are like most people, your own ability may have improved a little over the years, but all the information hasn’t really made you a better horse racing handicapper. If you don’t think that all the information hasn’t changed much, just take a look at the numbers.

Years ago, when I first started trying to make sense of this game, the crowd’s choice, the favorite, won about 30% of the time. Now, after all these improvements and additions and all the marvelous new gadgets and computers the crowd is still picking about 30% winners. The only people making more money from the horse races are the people selling information.

We are drowning in a sea of information and everybody seems to be looking for the best system to pick winners. Rather than trying to add more information and weighing which information is important and which bits of data are relevant, why not get back to the basics? Horse racing handicapping hasn’t really changed since horses started racing against each other. It still comes down to speed and pace.

Common sense tells us that the best system is the simplest and easiest to use. Complicated systems may impress the user, but if you want to pick winners and make money, master the basics of true handicapping with something simple and proven, like True Handicapping.